Generations of cultural relic restoration workers had accumulated considerable experience cleaning away this kind of grime.
Whether it was copper rust, iron rust, rust buried in the ground, or rust formed by soaking in seawater...
They had classified it all and developed different treatment methods for each kind. They had even amassed a huge number of research papers.
Of course, Shen Le didn't have the means to test the stains and determine whether they contained more salt or alkali, let alone conduct electron spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Infrared Spectroscopy (IR), or anything like that.
For now, he could only use the most basic methods, trying them one by one to see which worked best.
Shen Le set down his flashlight and picked up a needle. Carefully, he probed the crack and picked out a tiny bit of grime.
Then he lined up several bowls and poured a different reagent into each one:
Diluted white vinegar...
Diluted baking soda...
Diluted lye solution...
Alcohol...
Acetone...
He tossed a little grime into each bowl and watched to see how well the different solutions dissolved it. When he was done, he looked from side to side and let out a long sigh.
"I need a concrete room... I need a house made of concrete... A reagent like acetone is way too dangerous in a wooden house. It's flammable and explosive, and it gives off fumes!"
He had already been as careful as possible, putting the acetone and its bowl in a metal basin by themselves. Even if he spilled a little, it wouldn't catch fire on the spot.
But this stuff evaporated. It needed to be stored and its waste disposed of in special ways. He couldn't just pour it down the drain and call it a day!
Muttering to himself, Shen Le opened his notebook and added another long-term task. Then he nudged the grime in each bowl, observing how it dissolved in the solvents.
"Ah, acetone really is the most effective. Sigh, I'm going to have to risk dealing with this stuff again..."
He dipped a piece of Absorbent Cotton in acetone, held his breath, and dropped one bead of it into the grimy crack in the wood, then another. As he watched the liquid seep gently into the crack until it couldn't go any farther, he laid the damp cotton over it and waited for the grime to dissolve slowly.
Then he hurried to open the windows and doors and dashed out of the Studio.
"Hey! Xiao Ling, don't go in there! There are flammable substances inside. You could catch fire!"
Why'd she dart inside as soon as he cracked the door open? Anyone who didn't know she was a wooden puppet would think she was a cat!
He tucked Little Puppet under his arm and carried her all the way to the other side of the courtyard. Only then did he take off his gloves, wash his hands, and breathe in some fresh air. Right after that, he pulled out his phone and placed an order for an industrial respirator at lightning speed.
A KN95 mask could block dust, but it couldn't stop organic solvent fumes!
For the sake of his health and safety, he needed to breathe in as little of this stuff as possible!
"Working at home without the school lab is just too hard... I miss school. I miss the equipment and instruments. I think I might need a fume hood..."
"But those things are so expensive. Is there a way to make one by hand...?"
A fume hood wasn't something he could get right away. Even if he built one himself, it wouldn't be ready quickly. He could saw the boards himself, and buying glass wasn't difficult, but he still had to find the most important part: an exhaust fan.
For the time being, Shen Le would just have to face off against the acetone with his bare body.
Every so often, he lifted the cotton to inspect the stains that had seeped into it and estimate how quickly the grime was coming out. Once it seemed to have mostly seeped out, he wiped the area with Absorbent Cotton, then wound clean cotton around the needle and worked it into the crack, wiping a little at a time.
After he finished wiping, he rinsed the wood and took it outside to dry. He let the acetone evaporate naturally, while allowing the water-soaked wood to dry slowly in the shade and shrink gradually, so it wouldn't shrink too quickly and crack again.
"Fortunately, this wood isn't especially hard, so drying it in the shade shouldn't take too long. If it were hardwood, it would take ages..."
Softwoods like Pine Wood and Chinese Fir could dry in the shade in just three to six months. Hardwoods like sandalwood and Golden Phoebe Wood might not dry completely even after a year.
As for a giant Golden Phoebe Wood pillar in the Forbidden City in Beijing, more than a meter in diameter, that was even worse. He'd have to wait at least three to five years.
Even though this Ink Marker had only been washed a few times and didn't need to dry for half a year like freshly felled lumber before it could be used—otherwise, it would crack right away—it still wasn't something he could get done in an hour or two.
Drying the wood would take time, and he had nothing else to do, so Shen Le went back to figuring out the Devil's Work Ball.
The Forestry Research Institute had finished its experiments on the Devil's Work Ball's material and was the first to send back its findings. The answer was simple—just two words:
Jujube Wood.
"All right, one's a jujube tree, and the other's a jujube tree too..."
Shen Le muttered as he searched through the mansion. Sure enough, he couldn't find any suitable Jujube Wood lying around.
The workbench he'd dragged over, the door bolt at the entrance to the mansion—all the parts he'd pinned his hopes on weren't made of Jujube Wood. He couldn't saw off a small piece to repair the Ink Marker.
He turned to the all-powerful Taobao for help...
"Wait, why does Taobao even sell lightning-struck Jujube Wood? And it says over a hundred sold? How do they mass-produce something like this?!"
Shen Le puzzled over it for a while without finding an answer. Scrolling farther down, he even found someone asking in the reviews:
"Did they use nuclear power to strike it with lightning? Hydroelectric power is too Yin; it doesn't work well!"
Well... everyone's imagination sure ran wild...
"What's nuclear power?"
A weight landed on his knee. Xiao Ling had hopped up again, her eyes sparkling as she stared at the computer screen. After watching for a while, she even jumped onto the desk and reached for his mouse.
"What are you thinking of buying? Are you buying clothes for me?"
Shen Le sighed, opened his Taobao cart, and pulled up the page for her to see.
"Option one: buy an eight-centimeter-long, two-centimeter-diameter Jujube Wood dowel, then carve it into a bead by hand. It'll cost eight Yuan and take... I don't think I could carve a ball in three days."
"Option two: buy lumber for eight Yuan, then get a miniature wood lathe for 1,258 Yuan. It'll pay for itself in the long run. I could turn all kinds of wooden things whenever I wanted, without having to do the work by hand."
"Option three: buy a Jujube Wood bracelet with 1.8-centimeter beads for thirty Yuan. Xiao Ling, which one should I pick?"
"Obviously the expensive one!" Little Puppet answered without a moment's hesitation. Shen Le rubbed his brow, troubled.
"But if I pick the expensive one, I won't have any money to buy you clothes for now!"
"Then no!... I guess you should buy the bracelet!"
All right, all right... Good thing he hadn't picked the first option. It wasn't as if he'd mind working himself to death, but he absolutely couldn't skip buying her clothes—
Now that was truly filial of her!